Friday, 10 August 2012

How to access the Task manager on a Samsung Galaxy S3

Modern day smartphones, including the excellent Samsung Galaxy S3 run a huge variety of apps ranging from games to media players and sometimes we need to close apps that aren't running properly. The easiest and quickest way to close apps is via the phones inbuilt "Task manager", which allows you to see what tasks (apps) are open, how much of the processor they are using and how much memory they are needing as well as "Force closing" apps.

To get to the "Task manager" on the Samsung Galaxy S3 (and most modern Android phones) you start by holding the phones "Home" button until you see a screen like the one in the screenshot on the left. This screen will show the most recently used apps (allowing you to swiftly close or access those apps) as well 2 options at the bottom of the screen-"Task manager" and "Remove all".

If you click on the "Task manager" option you get to open the Task manager" which looks like the image on the right, with a dark screen and a list of currently active Apps (not just the recently opened apps). If you click on "Exit" you get given the chance to "Exit" (or force close) the app, or keep the app running (by clicking on "OK").

Whilst most current apps should run perfectly well on a Samsung Galaxy S3 some will end up crashing and need to be force closed before they operate properly. As a result I'd advice knowing how to force close apps and how to get to the task manager.